Lawyer Mark Goh argued for Han's Cafe that the Japanese restaurant's name was visually, phonetically and conceptually similar to its own trademark.

But HAN's lawyer Suresh Damodara disputed this, saying the cuisine and character of both restaurants were vastly different.

Han's Cafe is a self-service, low cost, Hainanese Western restaurant, while HAN Cuisine is a full-service fine dining Japanese restaurant which also serves champagne and other high-end liquor, he said.

The judge ruled that the HAN sign needed to be considered "in its entirety", and that included the addition of "Cuisine of Naniwa" and the Japanese-style circle around the words.

When treated as a whole, the the similarity between the names was marginal. There was also no likelihood of people confusing the two brands.

The judge said that the average consumer who approached the HAN Cuisine restaurant and observed the HAN sign applied at various positions in and around the restaurant, "would be disabused of any notion that there is an economic connection" between Han's Cafe's goods and services and those of HAN Cuisine.

vijayan@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Feb 13, 2015.
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